What do you do when you are such a loyal Illini that your classroom is decorated in orange and blue, and Purdue's basketball coach walks into your room as the parent of a new student?
Grab your cellphone (with Illini-logo skin) and ask for a selfie??
(No, I didn't ask him to take a selfie.)
But, orange is the main color in my classroom, and thus some of the handouts I had for the parents were xeroxed on orange paper.
Even the background of the display on the interactive whiteboard was in orange!
I can chirp on about it being Harrison's colors and all that (and I am a Harrison graduate), that orange is a "happy" color, and so on, but the truth of the matter is that the room is orange because I miss Illinois and this brings a piece of it here to Indiana.
Coach Painter smiled and laughed about it as he shook my hand afterward. And, the family decided to place their child in the class next year, so apparently they feel that that daily Illini influence won't be too detrimental, even over the course of two years.
Truth be told, Purdue is my second favorite team, and I root for them until they play Illinois.
So, for the next two years, I'll try to "Boiler up" a bit more as well as continue cheering for the Illini.
